Fonētisko īpatnību dinamika dziļajās tāmnieku izloksnēs

Abstract

The article aims to ascertain the dynamics of the phonetic features in the deep Tamian (tāmnieku) subdialects of the Livonianized dialect. The analysis is based on the materials of spoken language in subdialects of Pope, Ziras, Piltene, Zlēkas, Ance, Dundaga, and Ugāle, acquired by the author during the period of 2008–2019. These materials are compared with the data of the dialect archive of the Latvian Language Institute of the University of Latvia (the 50s and 60s of the 20th century). The dynamics of the phonetic features in the deep Tamian subdialects have been determined using several degrees of stability: stable, less stable, features that are disappearing, features fixed only in some subdialects, and features that have been lost. The language analysis shows that nowadays, the most stable features of the deep Tamian subdialects are the loss of short vowels in final syllables, e. g., ʒiêsm (< dziesma) ‘song’, zȇm (< zeme) ‘ground’, up (< upe) ‘river’, dar (< dara) ‘do, does’, and the reduction of long vowels in word endings, e. g., skuõla (< skuolā) ‘in the school’, mãjas (< mājās) ‘at home’, meža (< mežā) ‘in the forest’, stûri (< stūrī) ‘in the corner’, which are still widespread and most often used features in the speech of all generations. Less stable features are the reduction of monophthongs and diphthongs with a quality change, e. g., skuõlę (< skuolā) ‘in the school’, mãjęs (< mājās) ‘at home’, mežę // meže (< mežā) ‘in the forest’, stûra (< stūrī) ‘in the corner’, grãvas (< grāvjuos) ‘in the ditches’, and the insertion of the vowels a and ę for the elimination of syllabic liquids and nasals, e. g., ʒiêsam (< ʒiêsm < ʒiesma) ‘song’, vętar (< vętr < vętra) ‘storm’, sak̄ęn (< sak̄n̥ < sak̄ne) ‘root’. One of the endangered features is the loss of long vowels and diphthongs in the roots and suffixes, e. g., âbliš (< ābuoliņš) ‘clover’, kâpst (< kāpuosti) ‘cabbages’, vak̄riņ (< vakariņi ‘vakariņas’) ‘supper’, gȗlt (< gulēt) ‘to sleep’, rȗnt (< runāt) ‘to speak’, ʒîut (< dzīvuot) ‘to live’, which is observed only in older generation’s speech. The subdialects of Ance and Dundaga have preserved an archaic feature: a loss of a consonant is in future tense forms without the insertion of vowel ī, e. g., eîs (< ēdīs) ‘will eat’, laîs (< laidīs) ‘will let’, kris (< kritīs) ‘will fall’, sis (< sitīs) ‘will hit’. Few older generation’s speakers of the subdialects of Ance and Dundaga have maintained voiced consonants instead of unvoiced consonants at the end of the word or prefix, e. g., nãg (< nāk) ‘comes’, liêg (< liek) ‘lies’, krîd (< krīt) ‘falls’, tĩrid (< tīrīt) ‘to clean’, vęlag (< vęlāk) ‘later’, abrakˉ (< apraka) ‘buried’. The monophthongization and the labialization are lost in most of the deep Tamian subdialects.